Temple Of Saints - Albion Rovers See The Light
Scottish League Challenge Cup First Round 10/08/96
Albion Rovers 1 Saints 2 (after extra bloody time)
Team :: Main,McQuillan,Davidson,Griffin,Weir,McGowne,O'Neil,Scott,Grant,
Georgio,Preston
Subs :: McCluskey,Tosh,Farquhar
Oh well another morale-boosting start to the season - still I should be
grateful that we're at least still in the cup and didnt go out thanks to
another penalty-shootout.
A crowd of 856 (about 850 of whom were Saintees) bothered to turn up -
including a certain A. Rhodes Esq. (cries of "who ate all the pies") from
the Saints support - yeah we still luv him - NOT!!).
Saints never really looked too bad but there is a real problem getting the
ball in the back of the net. The midfield and defence seemed to be totally
incapable of stringing more than 2 passes together and as expected Roddy
was knackered after 10 minutes. To be fair to Rovers tho, their goalie was
in excellent form and the defence made a good job of closing down Roddy and
Georgio.
Saints scored after 57 mins thanks to a long goal-kick from Main finding the
Rovers defence caught too far forward allowing Georgio to cross for Roddy
to tap home and for a few minutes we believed the avalanche would come. But
no on Saints next attack Scott was dispossessed and whilst Saints tried to
get back and McGowne proved hes far too slow Mackenzie of Albion broke
through and rounded Main for the equaliser.
The rest of normal time was a pretty nervous affair. Tosh and Farquhar
replaced McGowne and Scott (who didnt look 100%). Extra-time started well
for Saints with Tosh doing more work on the right wing and putting some
good crosses over - Georgio forced a few good saves as well.
Two mins into the start of the second-half when it looked like Albion were
willing to settle for penalties ONeil was tripped on the left side of the
box by the goalie. Georgio took the penalty and blasted it home. Still there
were a few nervous moments before the final whistle.
Bookings for Danny, Roddy and Weir. MoM for me was Davidson - he took some
time to settle but looked the part. Special mention for Tosh as well - he
looks like he could be a regular before the end of the season. McGowne
should be dumped - hes playing like Inglis 2 years ago after relegation.